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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 1909)
- TnSUXDAY OREGOyiAN, POUTLAXP, SEPTE3IBER 5, 1909. mm y3HOTOQR.fi fH or him WHEX E. H. HARRIMAN returned from Europa the other day he found that the teamwork, so to call it. of his great railway org-aniiatlon was as perfect as when he, the captain, was at home watching- the machine, giving- signals to every member of the team and getting that result which Is only possible, when there Is perfect team work In an organization. Veteran rail way managers who have been watching the manner In which Mr. Harriman has built up his organixation will tell you that to them the most Interesting and the really new feature of this organixation Is what may be called Its teamwork. Every .subordinAte works In his place as perfectly and accurately as do the va rious parte of great and skillfully ad- Justed piece of machinery. It Isn't so strange as It might appear that Mr. Harriman should have thought of making his railway organization a per fect specimen of teamwork. He may have got the idea from his old baseball days. One of the things which r.ow In terests him in baseball as played today i. that some of the clubs bave made of teamwork a fine science. Mr. Harriman Is sure that, other things being equal, the baseball club which has secured the highest kind of teamwork Is the one which is going to get the championship. When Mr. Harriman was a clerk in the private bank In Wail street be organized a baseball nine. He has never put into any railroad operations any greater en ergy than he did into bis amateur base ball nine. They used to play on Staten Island on 'Wednesday and Saturday aft ernoons. Harriman was shortstop; he took that placo partly because he was a little man and partly because he thought it was the best place for the captain of the nine. He worked the nine over and - over, putting the men in various posi tions, until at last he got something like perfect teamwork out of them. Now that Is exactly what he set out to accomplish with his great railway organization. He wanted to get the ablest men, big-brained men, who had plenty of eneigy, who never got tired, or. if they did. would not confess it, and who were always looking ahead and never behind. And this is the kind of organization which Mr. Harri man found upon his return from Europe ready to receive bim. If any one were to ask who Is the ablest man among Mr. Harrlman's lieu tenants, the correct answer would be. so one of them is abler than any other, although each in his own particular sphere is better suited to his work and to his responsibilities thran any of the other members of the organization. Some are very able in one way and some In another. But they all work together. They think only of the great machine of which each la component part. Xo one of them seems to be thinking about himself. That has ben a trouble which ail the great railway oaptalns have found the most difficult to overcome. The gen eral manager and the general traffic manager are usually disposed to be very Jealous each of his own authority. The man who has charge of mainte nance of way migrht see a hundred things In the traffic department that could be Improved, yet he would not say anything about it, because of the likelihood of being told that If he would attend to his own department the traf fic manager would look after his. All this kind of friction and Jealousy has been eliminated from among Mr. Har rlman's lieutenants in their relations one with another. It took long and hard work to make an organization of this kind.-Just ex actly as It takes three or four years for the captain and general manager of a professional baseball team to lick the men into perfect shape and discipline, so that In playing the game each man Is doing the best for the club, never thinking about doing the best for him self. The core of Mr.' Harrlman's organ ization, that part of it upon which be relies for the perfect administration of his railway ' systems, consists of few men. Julius Kruttschnitt Is one of these men. John C. Stubbs Is another. Rob. ert 5. Lovett ts still another, and A. It. Mohler makes up a quartet of proba bly the ablest railway operators, acting as a whole, to be found anywhere in the United States. Then, in addition, Jiexe are, ea to operaUcr !!. J f. ' - - SI . y : . v, ' r ! J ' 1 .,- .1 , 1: ?. x' - v"" "' ' ' fv-- , . ' ,; J . j: y- -j 1 . frrrB Loree. J. V. Harahan. Albert J. Earling, Marvin Hughitt, and. on the finamXUU side, Henry Clay Frick. P. A. Valentine and William G. Rockefeller, Jr. For merly James Stillman was a financial lieutenant, or, more accurately speak ing, a financial associate, but he has re tired from active business life. I.egal Guide of Harriman System. There Isn't more Interesting character In the world of railway affairs than Robert S. Lovett. He was born far down In the southern part of Texas, and when a boy he heard many tales of Sam Hous ton and of the struggle for the Inde pendence of Texas, for all that country which is near his birthplace was march ing ground and camping ground for Gen eral Houston and his army. Young Lovett, while still a boy, was satisfied that 'if he had the chance to study law he would make a fair lawyer. Almost all of his studying was done at home with a copy of Blackstone on his knee and the Texas statutes on his desk. Sometimes, nowadays, when he is asked where he was educated as a lawyer he replies that he taught himself. He was admitted to the bar almost as easily as was the late Speaker Reed, .who, after answering two questions put to him by the examining committee, was passed by it. Vlthin a few months after his admis sion to the bar this young man had a railroad company for a client. It was a little railroad company with a high sounding name, but It became important because it was eventually incorporated by, or allied with, the Texas & Pacific Railroad. Little did the young lawyer dream when he was retained by the rail road to defend certain damage ca3es that he was taking a stop In the direction of association with the great railway line that was to stretch from New Orleans to San Francisco, ultimately to become a part of the Union Pacific system. In those days the railroads that stretched over the prairies of the West and the Southwest were kept busy de fending themselves against suits for dam ages for killing cows and hogs that had wandered upon the tracks. Usually the roads tried to settle amicably with the owners, and young Lovett showed him self a skillful diplomatist in work of this kind. But all the while he was doing something more than planning defenses for damage suits. Before he was years of age be saw clearly what Texas was to be as a route tor a transconti nental railway system. You can picture to yourself this am bitious young lawyer posting himself up on all the details of railroad law, studying statutes, and particularly the way In which old railroads or great railroads were legally 'able to absorb young, weak or almost bankrupted railroads. Gradually It came to be said in Texas that young Lovett was the smartest, brightest railroad lawyer in the State, as gradually he was given more and more important railroad work; and Anally it came to pass that C. P. Huntington, who always kept his eyes open for capable young men, made Mr. Lovett the general counsel ror all the Southern Pacific lines in Texas. After Mr. Harriman and his Union Pacific Railroad bought the control of the Southern Pacific he took a special fancy to Mr. Lovett. who came to blm with the new property. In fact, Mr. Harriman tied up with Mr. Lovett, as the saying Is. and in business and pleasure the two men became almost like Siamese twins. When Mr. Harri man traveled he would not go unless Mr. Lovett was with him. If that trav eling companionship could be secured without interfering with business. It Is upon Mr. Lovett that Mr. Harriman has relied In the main for counsel on delicate and Important legal questions. And when he was perfecting his new organization he named Mr. Lovett general-counsel for what Is called the Har riman system. A far cry from the Texas boy, who II years before was patiently reading Blackstone and fin gering his way through the Texas statutes. If you were to meet Mr. Lovett, not knnvlni that he is a lawyer, you would never dream that this apparent fun- lovlnr. bright-eyed, quick-moving man has gained the reputation of being one of the most clear-headed. Subtle and acute of all the lawyers now in the employ of railway organizations of the United States. Tou can Judge his sense of humor when It Is said that he classed himself, when asked for his political affiliations, as a Democratic Mugwump. There have been lots of Republican Mugwumps In the North east, but not many Democratic Mug wumps. Mr. Lovett and Julius Kruttschnitt. since their association a lieutenants Robert S. Lovett, Julius Kruttschnitt, A. L. Mohler and John C. Stubbs, the Quartette Upon Whom Harriman Mainly Relies of Mr. Harriman, have never had an Important difference of opinion. The lawyer defers to the man who Is the supreme director of maintenance and operation of the Union Pacific and nearly all of the allied Harriman lines. On the other hand, what the lawyer advises, as a lawyer, "goes" every time with Julius Kruttschnitt. Here is a man of most intense con centration of purpose In business. He thinks, dreams and Uvea with the Har riman system. It is everything to him In the world, excepting his family. He is sure that it is the greatest business organization that the world has ever known. He Is as proud of it as he would be If he were the owner of every dollar of Its stock. Like Mr. Lovett. Julius Krurttschniti was born in the far South, In New Or leans, and six years earlier than the flate of Mr. Lovett's birth, which occurred In the year before the outbreak of the Civil War. He was only 19 years of age when he received the degree of civil engineer from Washington and Lee University. Railway men say that at the time of his final examination he received the highest mark which up to that time had been given by the university fo any one taKing that degree. You see he was gifted at birth, apparently, with a mind that was able to grasp mathematics with the un derstanding and the fascination with which most boys read "Robinson Crusoe." At one time his friends expected that Kruttschnitt would become a professor of mathematics. But when he waa a teacher In a school near Baltimore for the five years following his graduation. In his leisure hours he- grew accustomed to watch the surveying then in progress for the construction of a new railroad from Baltimore to Washington. The work fas cinated him. and after a time he made un hte mind that hie proper field was the mechanics and engineering of railway construction and operation. After that he was very "glad to get employment upon a new railroad under construction in Texas, and after it was in operation he advanced from the humble position of roadmaster up and up, exactly as some of the engineers and surveyors of the Pennsylvania Railroad ej'stem have been promoted from minor positions until at last they have held important places upon the executive staff, some even becoming nresldnt. It used to be said of Kruttschnitt that he could survey without an instrument; that If he had a Jackknlfe and a piece of wood he could whittle out an imple ment with which he could take an eleva tion. He seemed to know instinctively what the best layout for a railroad would be. Naturally, C. P. Huntington heard of this bright chap when Huntington was pushing that part of his Southern Pacific Railway system which extended from EJ Paso, Tex., to New Orleans. Kruttechnitt was exactly the kind of man sure to ap peal to Mr. Huntington, who was very fond of vouiut men wno naa great in tensity of purpose and supreme power of concentration, men who could say in ten words a good deal more than most other men could say in 100. It was six years after he had taken up railroading that this former school teach er became Huntington's assistant general manager of the Southern Pacific's lines east of El Paso. Not so very long after he had secured this promotion he seemed to know the life history and everyday be havior of every rail and every tie upon the lines under his charge. Riding upon an engine he could tell with his eyes ehut where he was by the feel of the land. Such expert knowledge as this and his Initiative placed him In San Francisco as general manager of all the Southern Pacific line Just ten years after he had entered the employ of C. P. Huntington. This promotion came to him in 1SD5, and three years later he also had the burdens of fourth vice-president placed upon his shoulders. He was cheerfully performing this double duty when Mr. Harriman took over the Huntington property, and the new "boss," discovering that Kruttschnitt was a glutton for work, at least for railway work, made him aleo the director of main tenance and operation of the Union Pa cific, the Oregon Short Line and the other parts of the Harriman system that stretch northerly from San Francisco. Today he does his- day's work in Chicago, where .also are located John C Stubbs. J. T. Harahan, A. J. Barling and Marvin Hughitt. Mr. Kruttschnitt was early convinced of the necessity of perfect team work if there is to be perfect railway organiza tion. You may think It strange that a person of such intense personality could work without friction with other execu tive officers of the Harriman railway sys tem. But it is a peculiarity of this organi zation that the more brains each lieuten ant has the more easily, apparently, be associates with the others who are re sponsible for the operation and main tenance of the system. It is believed to have been at the sug gestion of Mr. Lovett that Mr. Harriman abandoned the old method which has characterized railway organization since railways were first operated In the United States, and Instead made each of the executive heads a vice-president. At all events. It was a plan which met with Mr. Kruttschnltt's cordial approval. You see, if all are vice-presidents and if each one has equal authority In every department, and one month or one year I I i- J V ' 2.F I. oTSEC ove OF THE SEV- fgAL LIlTSAfRAtT3 Wf-fO A?e OO JZAILWAY PZESDEMTS may be In control of one department and another month or another year in author ity over another, then opportunity for all friction is removed. Each executive has .become a standard part of the great machine. If one executive dies or re signs another is ready on the instant to step Into his place. Uarrlmaii's Traffic Man. Mr. Harriman was recently described as a human dynamo, but if ever there was such a creature his name is John C. Stubbs, another exceedingly Important Harriman lieutenant. To make every railroad man believe this It is only neces sary to tell him that Mr. Stubbs Is really the traffic manager of almost 30,000 miles of railroad that In this particular he directs railways which, if their tracks were carried from east to west in a single line, would completely encircle the globe and lap over some 6000 miles. To be a good traffic manager, even In a small district, a man has got to know ex actly what kind of traffic will come Into or go out of that district. Even in a state WIFE OF ST. LOUTS STANDARD OIL MILLIONAIRE. ft t i..; ' v vr - .. - , MRS. II. CLAY i I ; , - y;v- .',i . , .MmmK fill- misniKmk f - Si x I ' ' r " t - , 4 .? : :: NEW YORK, Sept. 4. (Special.) Mrs. H. Clay Pierce, wife of fie St. Louis Standard Oil millionaire, waa Virginia Prickett Burrows, of St. Louis and New York. Mrs. Burrows bad been a widow for two years and Mr. Pierce a widower for several more. Mrs. Pierce has spent much time in London and Paris and has had distinct social success, having entertained King Edward and others of the royal family. Mr. Pierce has spent more time In New York than in St. Louis in recent years. -.-i-yAV' ' ' 111 ""'l: 3 ATS'SY PZJZS Bf3 FOUR; i i . JfEStDET or Tf- - J.LVOS CGAmAi- as small as New Jersey, for example, this is no easy task. But to know the traffic that may be handled by railroads having 27.000 miles of tracks Is to have accurate statistical knowleuge of pretty much all of the nroduction in the United States. A man must have a natural gift for such work. All the training in the world would not make a competent traffic manager out of a man who knew how to write beaut! ful poems, compose music or to be the author of a best selling novel. The Spanish have a problem In which they express the Idea of expertness and facility in handling many things. They say, "He has good fingers for the piano." That exactly describes John C. Stubbs. He could tell you any day not only how many cars are needed to move the prod ucts In any district which the Harriman system covers, but he could tell you where these cars are. His associates sometimes laughingly declare that he seems to have a sort of hypnotic vision which makes it possible for him to fol low the movement of every freight and of every passenger car anywhere on the Union Pacific lines. Mr. Harriman never s r i i t y y PIERCE. F r - - .V '"j- L M5MM IH i. WHO THEY AFUl WHAT TH EY'DO .SOVTHZ2N JJJCrjC CO. has to ask Mr. Stubbs twice to get needed information. All that Mr. Stubbs knows of railway operation and trifflc management he has taught himself. He drifted West from his native place in Ohio and got a Job as freight clerk at Oakland, Cal., where the Central Pacific, now the Western link of the Union Pacific, terminated. That was only four or five years after C. P. Hunt ington. Mark Hopkins. Crocker and Le land Stanford had finished the Central Pacific Railroad, making connection with the Union Pacific, thereby giving to the United States the first transcontinental line. So Mr.- Stubbs, beginning railroad ing when 22, has actually grown up with the Union Pacific. Even as a clerk at Oakland Mr. Stubbs was away ahead of his time. He knew what was coming' in the way of Pacific railway development. What he predicted was realized, and so pleased was Mr. Huntington that he made him assistant general freight agent. This was In 1S71. In that office Mr. Stubbs was not satis fied simply to move cars, xie went all over the State of California to see what the farmers were doing, how much busi ness the miners were to offer, and he was able to predict in the Spring of every year approximately the actual amount of the crops that were harvested. One man recently said of him: "Stubbs knows Just how many peaches are on the trees in California and how many tons of ore will be shipped out of Arizona." And this man might have added that long before other railway men thoueht of doing such things scientifically Stubbs also knew how many orange groves there were In Southern California, and where each grove . was, and where were the best prune orchards, and how many tons of prunes would be offered each year for shipment to the East. Meanwhile Mr. Stubbs waa working out the problem of how best to haul traffic for long distances without breaking the freight and with the highest economy. Mr. Harriman early learned to accept Mr. Stubbs" statements without any ques tion, and he knew that, more than any other one man, Mr. Stubbs showed how it was possible to increase and expedite and operate at low cost long-haul traffic. To day he Is vice-president and traffic di rector of the entire Harriman system. He works in perfect sympathy and in cordial co-operation as well with Juliua Kruttschnitt, Robert Lovett. A. J. Moh ler and her lieutenants. And of the great quartette he is the oldest he is 62 while Judge Lovett is the youngest, being 49. Mr. Kruttschnitt is Bo; Mr. Mohler goes him four years better or worse, accord ing to the way you view the accretion of years. Last of the Big Four. Some years ago one of the big men In a trunk line system which has Its ter minal in New York was asked by a friend if he could tell him anything about A. L. Mohler, who had something to do with "Jim Hill's railway out in St. Paul." The New York railway man replied that he did not know Mohler and had never heard the name before. Thereupon he was informed that the time was sure to come when he would hear of Mohler, "for he Is certain to be one of the big guns in railway man agement." Such he most certainly be came when Mr. -Harriman took him away from Mr. Hill. As his name Indicates, Mr. Mohler Is of Pennsylvania Dutch origin. Born at Ephrata, Pa, he yet began his ralway career with the Chicago & Northwest ern when It was a comparatively small road, and long before Marvin Hughitt and James D. Layng had taken it a thousand miles across the uninhabited prairie. Mohler remained an humble clerk only a little while, and then, like the present president of the Boston & Maine, Lucius Tuttle, he became a sta tion agent. While thus occupied at Erie, 111., his superiors found that he had a native born gift for figures and accounts, and in that way he became traveling audi tor for a railroad west of the Missis sippi. Such he was when he fell under the eye of James J. Hill, then keen In his search for young men to help him convert the old St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railroad Into the Great Northern system, and Mr. Mohler be came that road's general freight agent. This was in 1882. There followed promotion after pro motion, until, at the end of seven years, Mr. Mohler found himself vested with the title and authority of general man ager of the Great Northern. As such he worked out many of the problems whose proper solutions have helped spell success for the Hill properties. Eierht ' years later Mr. Harriman an nexed him, and so he has the honor of being the first of the big four" to secure Mr. Harrlman's confidence. That he has had Mr. Harriman s full confidence from the start is shown by the fact that the latter at once made him president and general manager of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, a particular Harriman pet. Today Mr. Mohler is also a vice-presi dent and the general manager or the Union Pacific system. It Is because of his peculiar managerial qualities that he is held by Mr. Harriman" in such high business esteem. These four men Lovett, Kruttscnnitt, Stubbs and Mohler make the quartet. the big four, who, were Harriman' organization an army of which he was the commanding generul, would each be a major-general in command of a corps. But it is necessary, in order thai Mr. Harriman may carry out the highel plans for the development of the so called Harriman system of railways that he should have also competent lieutenants who are not in the direct. Immediate Union Pacific organization. Take, for instance," James Theodors Harahan. Zie is president of the Illi nois Central, but everybody knows that It Is E. H. Harrlman's railroad. It serves as a feeder to and is fed by the Union pacific system. It Is the link, or it may be better to call it the key, to that all-sweeping transcontinental railway construction which Is Mr. Har riman's supreme purpose. Marvin Hughitt, president of the Chicago & Northwestern, comes In the same class with Mr. Harahan, and Mr. Harrlma i values him so highly as a lieutenant that he Is a director of the Union Pacific. As for another rail road president, L. F. Loree, he owes his position in the Delaware & Hudson directly to Mr. Harriman, who, as soon as he became of very great influence in this Eastern property, put the form er president of the Baltimore & Ohio in charge of It. Mr. Loree has the ab solute confidence of Mr. Harriman. as. In fact, have all of his lieutenants. Harriman would not have about him. any one in whom he does not place perfect trust. For it is his opinion that the sole test is success, and that success cannot be gained unless there J exists loyalty to those who control . great railway systems. Yet another big railroad president who Is looked upon as being an im portant secondary lieutenant Is Albert J. Earling, of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul. His railroad beginnings were quite as humble as those of Mohler, or Harahan, or any of the other lieutenants, first and second grade; and when you talk with rail road men about him you are sure to note the enthusiasm with which they speak of him. Mr. Earling was born In a little Wis consin town 60 years ago, and never had an education, except that which he obtained In the common schools. But as a boy the railroad fascinated him. Jeremiah Milbank and others were Just perfecting the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul system, because they knew that William H. Seward was correct when he predicted thut at St. Paul and Minneapolis one of the greatest of American commercial centers would be Acta hllchAd a newer-fill twin cftV. COm- ' mandlng the gateways of the North- ' west. This railroad passed close by the boyhood home of Mr. Earling, and he was the happiest boy Imaginable when, at 18 years of age, It took him into employment as a clerk. But he wasn't satisfied to be a mere clerk. He wanted to learn telegraphy. ror at that time he thought that the finest thing a young man could do would be to serve as train dispatcher. So he mastered the clicking of the telegraph Instrument in about six months, and then spent his days and often his nights In sending and re ceiving messages for the railroad com pany. It Is said of him that he never made a mistake, never was reprimand ed, never was late for work, never looked at the clock to see If his day's work was ended. It was very hard work to act as a train dispatcher upon any railroad, and It was especially hard in the early days of the St. Paul. But for five years young Earling controlled the movement of trains on that system, and did It so well that they made him assistant superintend ent, then general superintendent and, when he was 40 years of age, general manager. Ten years later this man who had taugut himself telegraphy was elevated to the presidency of the St. Paul. Under him that road will shortly become a true Pacifio Coast route. Mr. Earling Is one of Mr. Harrl man's lieutenants In the sense that a very Important community of Interest has been established between the Union Pacific and the St. Paul systems, and it is for this reason that Mr. Earling is now serving as one of the directors of the Union Pacific. Another of the road's directors is William G. Rockefeller, Jr., nephew of John D. Undoubtedly William Rocke feller represents the financial power of the so-called "Standard Oil party," whrch Is In very close association with Mr. Harriman. But when it comes to matters of finance, this Rockefeller sits at the feet 6f Mr. Harriman, so to speak. He is one of the little-big railroad man's financial aids, and so comes in the same category with Henry Clay .Frick and P. A. Valentine, coke and steel barons, respectively. Copyright, 1909, by E. J. Edwards. The Prude. Thomas Grant 6prlngr in Smart Set. The Hollyhocks stand in a itiff. prim row. Lining the garden walk; The Bachelor Buttons behind theru zrow. But higher on their stalks th Hollyhocks blow, Nor look behind them becauee they know Mow folks .are Inclined to talk. ' So the Bachelor Button swings to and tro , Ignored by the Hollyhock. j